Providing information systems security and assurance has emerged as one of the most daunting technological and social challenges of recent times. The recent President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace lists developing and sustaining well-trained, highly skilled domestic corps of information security professionals as a national priority. In order to contribute significantly in fulfilling this crucial national need for well-trained and highly knowledgeable security professionals, the School of Information Science (SIS) at the University of Pittsburgh is offering Security Assured Information Systems (SAIS) tracks in both the Masters degrees in Information Science (MSIS) and Telecommunication (MST).

The SAIS curriculum is aligned with the unique mission of the SIS to provide an integrative, holistic understanding of three key pillars - technology, information and society – to produce graduates with distinct ability to understand and solve emerging real world IA problems from diverse perspectives. The goal of the SAIS track is to provide students with a broad set of theoretical background and practical skills in the design, development and deployment of highly assured networked information systems; evaluation and certification of security features of products and deployed systems; and overall management of information security in an organization.